Page 398

[Alexandr Korol]

this happens — just so that people will have an explanation of what occurred. I think that only after all these events take place will people truly understand the icon, not before. So when there are people today who, for some reason, keep trying to prepare from century to century for some kind of Last Judgment, I’ve never once in my life told anyone that they need to prepare — not in my books, not to friends, not to acquaintances. And I’ve never even thought about it myself. Because I think that’s a very foolish idea. That means you should live rightly — not for someone else, not for something, not for some particular event, but for yourself and for those around you, if you respect them at all. And regardless of whether something will happen or not, whether something occurs or not. But you see what people’s approach is? If something really is going to happen and you prove it to them, they’ll suddenly take life seriously and become decent. But if nothing’s going to happen, then what — does that mean it’s okay to behave badly? That’s kind of strange. Why do people only change in response to some situation? I believe you should always be a good person. So of course, you could say that it’s never too late to be good. Maybe someone will rethink their behavior or actions from this moment on. That would be wonderful. But yes, as you can see, people without halos and white robes are somewhere down at the bottom, where it looks very frightening, if you look at that icon. Which means that some people will face such a future sooner or later.

Question: Could you explain with examples the meaning of the phrase “and this faith, it has volume, that is, it can be different”? How should we correctly understand the volume of faith?

Volume, of course, is not the right word, even though it’s mine. You see, I expressed it that way because some people view faith as a scale that goes upward, as if someone’s connection to the higher grows. But at that moment, when I was describing faith, I meant it more like a person’s aura — like there’s this field around you, and your faith can expand within that field. It was about that state. Faith... I’ll say this: all these bright qualities, the virtues, are probably the most valuable things in life. Seriously. Not money, not connections, it doesn’t matter how you look, whether you’re young or old, in which city or country you live, what nationality you are, your gender — none of that matters.